machine quilted/hand embroidered
 

I am now the proud owned of a hand embroidered "Overall Sam" 9 panel quilt. My oldest sister (taken a few years ago by cancer) did the work on the squares and pieced it by machine with sashing and had it machine quilted. It remains unfinished (no binding) and I would prefer to quilt it by hand. My question is: can I rip the machine quilting to do it over by hand without leaving stitching scars on the quilt?

You probably can remove the machine quilting ... though there's a high risk of damage to the top.

Being that your sister did it, why not leave her work as is and keep it as original.
Then all you need to do is the binding and it;s finished.

I took apart a LA'd quilt once and redid it. As I wash all my quilts when they are finished, i did so with that one, too. The original holes disappeared with the washing.

If the quilt has polyester batting, you might also want to change the batting to cotton so it will shrink a bit to help the holes.

Jan in VA